The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards gala dinner, in partnership with Rathbones, returned this year to a spectacular venue: the London St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, one of the great monuments to the expansive spirit of the Victorian era. After a tax-raising Budget and a downbeat economic news cycle, our annual gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, judges and friends – with upbeat opening speeches by The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove and Rathbones CEO Jonathan Sorrell – was an oasis of optimism for the future of UK entrepreneurship.
Since these awards were launched in 2018, they have attracted well over 1,000 entries from every corner of the UK. This year, our judges picked 55 regional finalists, representing a galaxy of sectors from cosmetics to cybersecurity, from smart fintech to bold ideas for a greener planet. At our judging lunches, many founders described current challenges of hiring skilled staff and raising sufficient capital to achieve their ventures’ full potential. But, year after year, they show the same common traits of determination, focus and a willingness to take risks.
Whatever the political and economic weather, our judges are inspired by the entrants’ commitment and resilience. In that sense, all deserve to be winners. As in previous years, they were divided into ‘Breakthrough’ (those with annual revenues of less than £3 million) and ‘Scale Up’ (revenues of £3 million or more), with awards in each category for six regions – London and South-East, Midlands, North-East, North-West and North Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and South-West and South Wales – to make a total of 12 regional winners whose names can be found at
www.spectator.co.uk/innovator.
This year’s special award for Excellence in Sustainability went to Edinburgh-based Artus Air, which makes water-based, low-energy air conditioning units that reduce costs and environmental impacts. Our Innovator to Watch – chosen from smaller entrants on the cusp of commercialisation – was AssetCool from Leeds, whose cable-coating technology has the potential to create huge improvements in the efficiency of power transmission networks.
Runner-up for Economic Innovator of the Year was Maeving, a Coventry-based manufacturer of stylish electric motorbikes. And the overall winner is a disruptor of the very staid market for car insurance: Cuvva, from Clerkenwell in London, which offers drivers the choice of buying insurance for occasional journeys by the hour and through an app. It is an outstanding winner in a cohort of Economic Innovators for 2025 that truly lifted the judges’ spirits.
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